4.
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On nationality Mr. Renton said because of his visit to Peking he had not been a party to discussions in London in recent days. He repeated Ministers' assurances during the Parliamentary debates that he would consider views from Hong Kong seriously and assured the meeting that the UKG meant
As a proof of that, he was prepared to provide advance notice of the statement on nationality he would make at his press conference the following morning. Mr. Renton read from his statement as follows
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I would like to make clear that, as regards an endorsement in the BN (0) passport, providing a satisfactory formula can be found HMG will agree to the position being made clear in the passports. As regards the ethnic minorities and the ex-servicemen it was right that Ministers should made clear to Parliament the difficulties involved in the proposals which have been made to them. But as they also made clear their minds are not closed on these issues and having ensured that there should be no misunderstanding of the difficulties they are ready to examine these matters further. They have agreed with the Hong Kong Government that a team of officials should visit London to provide further information on the minorities and the status of the ex-servicemen concerned. I should like to emphasise that the purpose of this visit is primarily to establish more of the facts. The difficulties are real ones: I do not wish to raise hopes too high.'
Mr. Renton emphasized that the purpose of the visit of the team of officials would be to establish the facts and he would not raise too high hopes.
5.
In reply to Mr. Hilton Cheong-leen's question whether he could elaborate on the meaning of the word 'convergence', Mr. Renton said he could not. The word
The word 'convergence
convergence' was a term of art in his discussions with Mr. ZHOU Nan and Mr. JI Peng-fei. Use of this term did not mean that the UKG was giving
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